The scheduling of jobs on a machine such as a fabrication machine and other manufacturing machines and production devices (collectively a “machine”) is a complex task. Many different combinations of machine characteristics, job characteristics, and organization characteristics can impact the desirability of a particular scheduling decision and the ease in which human beings interact with the machine and scheduling application.
Different machines can have different: (a) maintenance requirements; (b) production capabilities; and (c) other machine characteristics (collectively “machine characteristics”). If a machine is not properly maintained, it will typically perform in a suboptimal manner that often requires more time and expense to correct than the time and expense necessary for efficient proactive maintenance and management.
Different jobs can have different: (a) quality and quantity of inputs; (b) quality and quantity of outputs; (c) priority values with respect to the organization using the machine; (d) deadlines; (e) lengths of time from beginning to end (“completion times”); and (f) other job characteristics (collectively “job characteristics”). Job characteristics and machine characteristics can have a significant impact on each other, and the scheduling of jobs on a machine.
Some type of human intervention is typically required in the configuring, running, and maintaining of production environment machines, and that human element can have a significant impact on both the maintenance of the machine as well as in how the various jobs scheduled on the machine are managed. Scheduling systems typically schedule jobs using “machine-centric” interfaces rather than “user-centric” interfaces. Thus, machines are often underutilized because the production schedule of the machine is scheduled around the users, instead of having the various users schedule their work around the constraints and limitations of the machine.
Interactions between the user and the machine are often hampered by the machine characteristics, job characteristics, and/or organization characteristics. For example, an operator may not be able to submit a job for the production queue on a machine until after the design of the component is completed and submitted. Moreover, a fabrication machine may require both physical inputs as well as data describing how the physical inputs are to be transformed into physical outputs. This level of detail is not typically conducive to how human beings go about the process of scheduling jobs on various machines. Moreover, the interface of a first-in-first-out (“FIFO”) queue of submitted jobs does not facilitate the ability of users to more effectively schedule the jobs for a particular machine or group of machines based on the needs of users and their organizations.
Existing scheduling systems are typically limited to single-view interfaces, such as a traditional linear list of submitted jobs (a “queue-list view” which can also be referred to as a “print queue interface”). By limiting users and operators to particular views of a machine schedule, the ability of users to enhance their efficiency in scheduling jobs and utilizing machines is impeded.